Police hold seventh round of talks with bank representatives

As many as 394 ATMs of the 3,651 in the city do not have security guards, while the remaining are yet to initiate police-mandated security measures, a survey conducted by the city police has revealed.

The police had given banks a 45-day deadline, which ended last week, to implement the measures.

City Police Commissioner Raghavendra H. Auradkar gave details of the findings on Saturday at a press conference after meeting the bankers to discuss the matter.

According to the survey report, 2,372 ATMs do not have alarms in place; CCTV cameras have been installed outside 1,987 ATMs, and inside 3,238 ATMs.

More time sought

Mr. Auradkar said that though the city police had given directions to banks to initiate security measures, banks had not done so. The Saturday meeting was the seventh one that the city police had with bank representatives. According to Mr. Auradkar, banks had sought more time to put the security system in place. They attributed the delay to the time-consuming tender process.

The city police chief announced that the request would be considered, and after discussing the issue with senior police officials, a new deadline would be set. He threatened action if even the new deadline was not met.

Though the RBI guidelines stipulate that certain security measures should be in place, bankers were reluctant to implement them, Mr. Auradkar said and reiterated that there would be no compromise on security measures, especially with regard to deployment of security guards at ATMs.

State-level bankers’ committee convener Santosh Kamath told The Hindu that most ATMs have security guards and CCTV cameras inside the kiosks. Now installing CCTV cameras outside the ATMs and alarm system was the issue being discussed.